PHOENIX — Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs vetoed House Bill 2703 Tuesday, which aimed to speed up the ballot-counting process in Arizona.
HB 2703 was set to address on-site tabulation of ballots for voters who choose to drop off their mail-in ballots at an early voting location after 7 p.m. on the Friday before Election Day in Maricopa County.
See previous ABC15 coverage of the bill passing the Arizona House and Senate in the player above.
"Today, I vetoed HB 2703. While I too want faster election results, the solution should not needlessly restrict Arizona citizens' freedom to vote, or undermine the learning and safety of students in public school districts. This legislation effectively ends the Active Early Voting List, something that has nothing to do with faster election results, but disenfranchises voters by adding additional steps for the hundreds of thousands of Arizona voters who prefer to vote by mail," Hobbs said, in a statement.
Read Hobbs' full letter to Arizona House Speaker Steve Montenegro below:
Senate President Warren Peterson previously said that votes in Arizona's largest county would not take nearly as long to count and report with this bill.
In a response released Tuesday, Petersen called Hobbs' veto a "huge mistake."
"This was a missed opportunity to increase voter confidence and reduce frustration on election night," Petersen's statement read, in part.
Read Senate President Warren Petersen's full response to Hobbs' veto below:
"The Governor's veto is a huge mistake. This was a missed opportunity to increase voter confidence and reduce frustration on election night," said Senate President Warren Petersen. "Instead of working with Republicans in good-faith to provide much-needed reforms to our election processes, the Governor impeded all efforts to ensure Arizona can report the vast majority of votes on Election Night. This is not what Arizonans want from their state's leaders. Republicans and Democrats should be able to work together to solve these issues in a bipartisan manner without resorting to political talking points.
This legislation from President Petersen closely mirrored policies and procedures found in the State of Florida, which has largely perfected its vote counting over recent election cycles. Late last year, President Petersen hosted a call with the Florida Secretary of State and other Arizona elected officials to discuss the Florida model and how our state could implement those successful practices for future elections. A recent poll shows that a majority of Arizona voters believe that the state "should change its laws to maintain election integrity and count votes more quickly." SB 1011/ HB 2703 would have allowed voters who choose to drop off their mail-in ballots at an early voting location after 7 p.m. the Friday before election day to tabulate those ballots on site in Maricopa County, which represents 65% of the population of the state. In the other 14 counties, voters who choose to drop off their mail-in ballot at a polling location, after 7 p.m. the Friday before Election Day, would have been required to show ID so that county recorders can skip the time-consuming signature verification process and speed up results. Voters would have still been able to drop off their mail-in ballots without check-in for 24 days prior to Election Day. After this date, voters with a mail-in ballot who do not wish to show ID at the polls would have been required to drop off their ballot at the county recorder's office. To ensure that voters are not disenfranchised by the change, the bill added three additional days of early voting: the Saturday, Sunday, and Monday before Election Day, which were previously limited to emergency voting only. The bill also mandated public schools be used as voting locations to expand opportunities to vote and create more convenience for voters.
I promised the people of Arizona that this legislature would be committed to making commonsense and proven changes to our election processes, and my colleagues and I remain resolved to achieve that goal," said President Petersen. "Status quo for our state's elections is not an option. Arizona should never again be the laughingstock of the nation for its woefully slow election reporting. Our caucus will be discussing a path forward on this issue in the days and weeks ahead."
